James’s Blog: The Glory of Differences.

James’s Blog: The Glory of Differences.

Six thick, long ropes of licorice. I’ve never seen the like, and neither have the children.  They can barely contain their excitement. The red one is strawberry, the green one apple, the blue one blueberry and so on. Five different children and six different licorice ropes. Read more

James’s Blog: Fit for Purpose.

James’s Blog: Fit for Purpose.

On my desk sits a copy of Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible (Complete and Unabridged I’ll have you know). It’s not there for the reason you might think it is. Read more

James’s Blog: Mid-Life Exegesis.

James’s Blog:  Mid-Life Exegesis.

Over the past half a decade or so, I’ve gradually moved into my new home over in the land of Middle-Age. It’s a wonderful Tolkienesque place where you now need to get up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and your shoulder is still twinging even though it’s been nearly a week since you lifted that suitcase. Read more

James’s Blog: An Emergency Blog.

James’s Blog: An Emergency Blog.

Every now and then I’m going to find myself short of inspiration and time, and still needing a weekly blog post. In these moments of emergency, I’m going to mine my previous blog for something suitable (you remember my previous blog – the one I wrote while in Australia? I mentioned it a few weeks back). Anyway, this is one of those times. Here’s some decade old musings on purpose and happiness. I was quite the deep thinker in those days…
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James’s Blog: Being Fruitfully Unproductive.

James’s Blog: Being Fruitfully Unproductive.

Although I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, it’s turned out that I have started 2020 with a few new disciplines. I thought I’d tell you about one of them.

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James’s Blog: Get More Jesus.

James’s Blog:  Get More Jesus.

(Once again, I wrote a devotion for our church’s week of prayer. Once again I’m using it as my blog post for this week.)

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” (John 17:24)

This morning the streets of Canterbury, in the early wind and rain, are almost deserted. It makes a nice change after the Christmas excess. Read more

James’s Blog: A Small Act of Rebellion.

James’s Blog:  A Small Act of Rebellion.

Last week, I went shopping for orange juice. In Tesco’s they had a special offer, which I assumed had something to do with the fact that the four cartons of juice in front of me all had ‘Happy Christmas!’ written on them. The use-by date was the end of January. That was fine; we’d get it drunk by then. As I picked up the juice I noticed that behind it were all the newer, non-festive cartons. They were still on offer, but these ones had a use-by date for the end of February. Read more

James’s Blog: Being Taken Advantage Of.

James’s Blog: Being Taken Advantage Of.

(Look, I promise I’m not going to make a habit of this, but I found a post on my old blog that I thought was interesting enough to just cut and paste, so here it is. This one comes from April 2011.) Read more

James’s Blog: This is the Sort of Thing that God Does to Me.

James’s Blog:  This is the Sort of Thing that God Does to Me.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit says, “James is distracted and hasn’t got his guard up – let’s plant a bomb in his head.”

I was just on my way to the school to collect the children, and my phone pinged. It was a message from someone who works with me, Read more

James’s Blog: Ten Years Ago…

James’s Blog:  Ten Years Ago…

Ruth reminded me that this is not just any old New Year. This is the end of the 2010s and we’re about to embark on the roaring 20s. I actually found this encouraging. Read more

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